


Getting It Right

by advictorem



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, F/M, Femslash, Puppies, past Thalia/Zoe, past Thaliabeth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 07:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1737098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/advictorem/pseuds/advictorem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Wednesday, Thalia meets an annoying puppy. Saturday, she meets his beautiful owner. (Theyna)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Getting It Right

**Author's Note:**

> This felt really rushed, so I'm sorry for that. Got the idea from a post on tumblr that I can't find anymore. Oh, well! Hope you enjoy.

** Wednesday **

Thalia had always loved dogs, and dogs had always loved her. Her friend and talent manager Artemis had a whole pack of them that adored her to death; they smothered her with affectionate licks whenever she visited them. She had some kind of mad charisma with all types of animals, really, but especially with dogs.

That’s why she was so shocked when a puppy clamped its teeth onto her shoelaces and snarled up at her.

She had just been walking home from the recording studio, and that mean little fucker got the wild urge to sink its tiny little fangs into her boots. Dogs never bit at her— _ever_.

Naturally, she picked the little thing up by its golden collar. She met its reddish-brown eyes straight-on, knowing that if she looked away it would interpret it as weakness. It may have sounded stupid but Thalia was competitive with anyone and everyone, and that did not exclude mean little puppies.

Fuck it. He wasn’t going to look away. She might as well try to see if this dog belonged to anyone. There _was_ a collar, and a golden one at that. She bit back another curse. The collar had no number, only the dog’s name—Aurum, Thalia struggled to decipher.

“Look more like a Scrappy Doo to me,” she muttered, arching a dark eyebrow when the dog snapped at the air in front of her face.

 She sighed, dropping him to the ground none-too-gently. She wasn’t going to bother. Scrappy had a collar and he wasn’t dirty or anything, so obviously his owner had to be somewhere close-by, right?

Thalia convinced herself that _yes, his owner simply must be near_ , and she made her way back to her apartment. About a block away, she felt a set of familiar teeth chomping at her combat boots.

“Fuck,” she groaned aloud, glancing down at the hyperactive puppy. “Not you again. Listen, Scrappy—” a snarl “—Doo, go back home.”

He growled louder, ferociously tearing at the laces of her boots. She was half-tempted to chunk her boots off and throw them into busy traffic but she wasn’t _that_ mean; plus, these vintage boots had been her dead father’s and replacements wouldn’t come very cheap.

“Fine,” she decided briskly, lifting him up into the air. “You’re coming home with me, you little shit.”

Man, she was going to have trouble explaining this to Annabeth, her roommate who specifically asked her to never own a pet.

She carried him away from her body once she realized that he liked very much to chew on her cropped black hair. She knew it probably tasted amazing but come on.

Plenty of people looked at her strangely and mothers covered the eyes of their bewildered children, but Thalia couldn’t honestly care less. She wasn’t going to risk anything ruining her hair, or her old leather jacket that she had probably worn since birth.

It wasn’t long before she got to her shared apartment but it felt like a freaking century with that puppy yapping in her ear the whole walk there.

Annabeth greeted her with the usual grin and swat on the ass before her gray eyes focused on the puppy that had begun to head-butt the closed front door.

“What—?”

“Don’t worry,” Thalia said. “It’s not a stray. Someone lost their dog, so I decided to take him home and hang flyers around or something. He won’t be here for long, trust me.”

They watched together as he knocked a lamp off of the coffee table. Annabeth exhaled in frustration. “He’s definitely a keeper. We’ll probably have to pay the owner to take him back.”

Thalia stifled her laughter. “Just make sure you keep him away from my boots when I’m gone.”

“When you’re gone?” Annabeth repeated, scoffing. “You aren’t leaving me here to take care of him. I’m—”

“Allergic, yeah, yeah,” Thalia finished for her mockingly. “But I have shit to do.” She gave her a crooked smile, hoping to persuade her. “You can even call your boyfriend over to keep you company, and I promise that I won’t threaten him.”

Annabeth placed her hands on her hips bossily. "Why can’t you just stay? I thought you loved dogs!”

Thalia fidgeted uncomfortably. “Yeah, well, I’m getting tired of them, that’s all.”

Scrappy growled at her, the hairs on his back rising. Electric blue eyes widened before she decided to quickly amend her statement. “Okay, I was lying. It’s just that _he_ doesn’t like _me_.”

Scrappy almost immediately stopped growling, instead scampering off to her bedroom. Ugh.

What _was_ he? A fucking lie detector?

And what was with all that bravado? He wasn’t even a big fella. He was like a miniature golden retriever—cute, she would admit, but definitely a pain in the ass.

Annabeth fixed her with that no-nonsense look and Thalia again attempted to argue. “Me and the girls have to play a show tonight.”

“Where?” Annabeth challenged.

“At a bar.”

“Well, you better hope they allow you to bring pets.” Annabeth spun on her heel and stormed into her bedroom.

Thalia groaned. She loved her roommate to death but Annabeth had yet to learn that it was impossible to be more stubborn than her.

“I’ll call and cancel,” Thalia offered. “But your boyfriend can’t come over anymore! If you try to sneak him in here, I’ll get Scrappy to sniff him out and then I’ll kick his lily ass.”

Thalia glanced down at Scrappy, who had begun to whimper about something. It was strange hearing the vulnerable sound come from such a violent hellhound.

“Come on,” she told him firmly, sulking off to her bedroom with the puppy close in tow.

 He was acting a little strangely now, noticeably more hyper—that made her think about food. What would this dog eat? She was sure she had some snacks in her room but would he even like frosted pop-tarts?

She soon discovered that he didn’t. She couldn’t even get him to chew a bit of it. He simply looked at it in disgust before nudging her closet door open with his muzzle and searching for more shoes to munch on. Thalia exhaled heavily, throwing herself onto her bed.

In the morning, she was going to hang up signs and find out if this dumbass dog had some kind of owner, and if said owner would graciously take him back.

** Thursday **

Thalia woke up in the most uncomfortable position. Her arms were curled around her friend Annabeth, who had probably watched a terrifying movie the night before and snuck into her bed for comfort. That wasn’t the uncomfortable part. The uncomfortable factor was the dog resting on her, his little body tossed across her legs. He was gnawing on her socked toes in his sleep, growling quietly to himself. The little bastard.

He was kind of cute though.

“Ugh, get a girlfriend,” Annabeth grumbled sleepily, turning out of Thalia’s embrace.

Thalia refused to acknowledge the comment, yawning and stretching her arms over her head.

The two of them _had_ dated, in middle school, for less than a day. They got into an argument within the first eight hours, seeing as Thalia’s temper had been even worse during her childhood and following the death of her mother, and they decided it would be wiser for them to remain best friends.

She nudged Annabeth. “Hurry up and get out of my bed before Percy accuses me of trying to steal you.”

Annabeth laughed sleepily, shaking her head to let Thalia know that she wasn’t getting up anytime soon. Thalia sat up, accidentally waking Scrappy. He barked, jolting Annabeth out of the bed. She noticed him and scowled, just barely holding back a sneeze.

“You let him sleep in here?” Annabeth nearly shrieked.

It had only been three days since Thalia had found him and even though they had hung signs in town, no one had called to claim him yet. He was just as snappy and hyper and irritable as ever, but Thalia was almost getting used to having him around.

Ow!

Her feet weren’t used to him yet.

“Stop that,” she told him sternly, pouting and stomping off into the kitchen.

Did he have some kind of foot fetish or something?

After making breakfast and tossing Scraps a few slices of lunchmeat, she decided to take him for a walk. It was when she realized it was raining that she changed her mind. Regardless of the weather, she still had to meet her brother for lunch.

“Please, Annabeth,” Thalia said, throwing out her best pout. “Just for a couple of hours, I promise.”

“Thals, I’m allergic to dogs—”

“No you aren’t,” Thalia realized, pointing at her accusingly. “You said you had a dog when you were a kid.”

Annabeth’s expression dropped. “He ran away.”

 “Wow. That’s what your hatred of dogs is all about?”

“You are making fun of me,” Annabeth accused, narrowing her eyes. “You’re fucking mocking me.”

“I am not!” Thalia claimed but her shit-eating grin said otherwise.

“Thalia!”

“Fine, fine,” the taller girl conceded. “Sorry.” She knew she didn’t sound very sorry. “Please, just watch him for me. I’ll owe you—big time.”

Annabeth glared but relented. “Okay. But you _do_ owe me.”

“Thanks, Annie,” Thalia said, slinging on her leather jacket. “Don’t wait up!” she called over her shoulder before she left the apartment. She could imagine Annabeth’s trademark eye roll.

She got to the restaurant ten minutes late. Jason was waiting for her inside of the little diner but she noticed that there was someone sitting close to him—at the same table, in fact. My, my, who was she?

Thalia recognized the girl as Piper McLean, the daughter of the famous Tristan McLean, who was their mother’s ex-fling. Her mother was dead now, of course, so obviously she and Tristan were no more.

“Thalia,” Piper greeted with a smile when Thalia walked up to the table.

She slid into the booth, across from Piper, to the left of Jason.

“Didn’t expect to see you here,” Thalia acknowledged, arching an eyebrow. “But certainly pleased you are.”

Jason cleared his throat pointedly.

With her finger, Thalia drew an imaginary dragon on the table. “Kidding.”

“So, what’s been going on?” Jason asked curiously. “I haven’t heard from you in a while.”

“We talked yesterday,” Thalia pointed out unnecessarily. She knew Jason was a worrywart—something they had in common—so she decided to humor him with an actual response. “Played a couple shows. Stubbed my toe on the edge of the couch. Found a dog. Ran into the wall a couple times.”

“Wait, you what?” Jason asked, urgently slapping his palm on the table. It smacked rather loudly, drawing the attention of the waitress across the room from them.

“Stubbed my toe,” she answered, knowing that wasn’t the part of the conversation that had caught his attention. “Why, you worried?”

Piper laughed. “I think he meant the thing about the dog.”

Jason simply nodded slowly, fighting off a smile.

“Oh, all right,” Thalia acquiesced, stealing a sip of her brother’s glass. “Ew, what is that?”

“Water,” Jason said. “Back on track.”

“Right. I found a dog. He had a collar but it had no contact information, which was strange. Annabeth helped me hang up signs but no one has called yet.”

He thought for a long moment, pulling his lip between his teeth. “What does he look like?”

“I think he’s a mutt, honestly.” Thalia shrugged. “He looks to have some golden retriever in him.”

Jason nodded like this wasn’t new information. “His eyes were a reddish-brown?”

Thalia nodded slowly. “And he has a golden collar, which is funny. His owner could afford to get him that but they couldn’t get their contact information engraved in it.”

Jason snorted. “That’s Reyna for you.”

Thalia slowly ran her tongue over her upper row of teeth. “Reyna?”

“I work with her,” he supplied. “She’s in my squad.” A warm brotherly smile parted his plump lips. “ _Your search is over_.”

Piper smiled coyly over her mug of hot chocolate.

“You think the dog is hers?” Thalia asked plainly, not sure how to feel. She was actually starting to like the runt. “His name is Aurum.”

“Definitely,” Piper said, nodding. “Reyna showed us pictures a few days ago. She’s been looking everywhere for him. She hung papers up in the office.”

Thalia arched a curious eyebrow. “You work with SWAT?”

Piper grabbed his hand, smiling up at him in a way that made her nose scrunch adorably. “No, I showed up at Jason’s office with lunch. I got off work early and decided to visit him.”

Ugh, love.

Jason politely waved a waiter over but not before saying to Thalia, “I’ll set you two up. I think Reyna is free this Saturday. If she is, I’ll text you her address and you can drop Aurum off.”

Thalia smiled weakly. “Yeah. And Jason?”

“Yeah, sis?”

“You’re paying for lunch.”

** Friday **

Thalia shoved Scrappy off her face. “Stop licking at my cheeks, you little bastard.”

Unable to help it as he crawled back up the bed and began licking her face, she laughed and scratched his belly.

He yapped happily, his tail swishing and cutting through the cool air.

Annabeth looked up from her book. “You know, he’s not as bad as I thought he was going to be. He’s kind of cute.”

“As long as you don’t lie to him, he’s an angel,” Thalia remarked. She recalled the day before, when he clawed at her for lying to Annabeth about leaving the fridge open.

“I like it,” her roommate countered. “He helps me keep you in line.”

“It was just a fridge,” Thalia muttered under her breath. She released a sigh and stood up to stretch out. “His whole lie-detector complex really creeps me out.”

Annabeth smiled teasingly. “You like him,” she accused.

She shrugged in response. “Doesn’t matter what I think about him. He’s going home tomorrow. Jason just sent me the address.”

“Who is this woman?”

“Reyna,” Thalia replied immediately, then she paused. “It’s a pretty name.”

Annabeth smiled coyly and then hid it, like she was trying to desperately hide some kind of secret. Thalia recognized that look. Her friend was making fun of her about something.

Choosing not to dwell on it, Thalia left the room to answer the phone, and Scrappy immediately followed after her to nibble on the leg of her sweatpants.

She didn’t want to admit it but she was definitely going to miss waking up to him biting her toes.

** Saturday **

Thalia’s hands were shaking. She wasn’t entirely sure why. There was nothing to be anxious about, and she was usually pretty confident. Scrappy barked excitedly at the sight of the sizable condo, dancing in circles around the doormat.

She smirked, shaking her head in amusement, before going to knock on the door. She waited and waited, and then she knocked again, this time notably harder.

She heard fast footsteps—bare feet treading across wooden flooring—before the door was thrown open.

Thalia completely forgot the introduction she had prepared three hours previous. Her mouth ran dry as she stared dumbly at the beautiful figure before her.

_Nice legs_ , Thalia thought inappropriately. _What time do they open?_

“Aurum!” the woman called loudly, noticing the puppy after glancing curiously at Thalia. “Oh my gods,” she said, sinking to her knees to accept his wet kisses on her cheek. “Where did you find him?”

When the woman received no response, she looked up to see a reddened Thalia numbly staring at her. Self-consciously, the woman, who must have been Reyna, looked down at herself. “Oh, I am so sorry. I didn’t realize that, in my rush to answer the door, I didn’t exactly grab proper clothing.”

Thalia couldn’t agree less. She had no problem with the way the long-sleeve sleep shirt looked on her. Clearing her throat, she finally brought herself to respond. “N—no, it’s really fine. I—I was just…uh…”

Gods, what was she—a school boy?

Reyna smiled—actually smiled at her—as she scratched behind Aurum’s ears. “Please, come in. We’ll talk about compensation over coffee or something.”

What was wrong with her? If Thalia had thought she was anxious earlier, she really had no idea. She was noticeably jittery, running her hand through her hair and digging through her empty pockets, when she accepted Reyna’s offer.

“If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I will dress into something a little less comfortable,” Reyna said, almost embarrassed. “You can make yourself at home on the couch.”

Thalia didn’t make herself at home. She couldn’t—not with Scrappy…um, Aurum staring up at her like that. His brother, she guessed, was the mutt that ran into the room next, his ears flopping around as he panted excitedly.

“Argentum,” Reyna introduced as she walked back into the living room, dressed in a tank top and a gray sweatpants. She arched a brow when she noticed that Thalia was standing rim-rod straight in the center of the room. “Please, have a seat.”

Thalia waited for Reyna to sit on the couch before she did as well, making sure to keep a comfortable space between them. "Jason is my brother. He sent me your address."

"Ah," Reyna said simply. "You must be Thalia, then. He's told me about you."

"That's me," she replied nervously. "Well, listen, I—"

Argentum walked up and began to sniff her boot, making her leave her sentence incomplete, and part of her feared that this one would gnaw into her shoes, too.

“Down, boy,” Reyna commanded, and immediately Argentum backed away and settled onto the floor, paws out in front of him. “Sorry about them. They’re about to begin their training for the K-9 Unit. They love munching on people.”

They were flesh-eating SWAT dogs. Was that meant to alleviate her uneasiness? She already felt like a fool around this woman.

Thalia laughed awkwardly, patting the thighs of her black jeans. “I think I’d better go. Don’t worry about compensating me.”

Reyna smiled although she looked reluctant to do so. “All right. If you’re sure,” she said, walking Thalia to the door.

Thalia began to exit, feeling like she couldn’t get out of the apartment fast enough, when Reyna stopped her by lightly touching her arm. She turned back, her expression questioning.

She was surprised to see that Reyna’s cheeks were red. “I really can’t thank you enough.”

Uncomfortable from the attention, Thalia shrugged. The contact didn’t help the butterflies in her stomach, either. “It—It’s really fine.”

“Well,” Reyna began with a shy smile. “I’d be a shame to just let you walk off without anything.” She bit her bottom lip, and Thalia found herself intently staring. “Your brother happened to mention that you’re single?”

_Holy shit_.

She didn’t know whether she wanted to hug Jason or punch him in his silly face.

Thalia exhaled too heavily, nearly choking on air. “Yeah.”

“How does lunch sound?” Reyna asked. “On me.”

_I’d like to be on you._

“No!” Thalia answered, a little too enthusiastically. Aurum whimpered from behind Reyna, peering up at her. “On me,” she said slowly, afraid the growling Argentum would pounce on her.

“I can’t possibly allow you to pay after returning my little Aurum,” Reyna argued with a wide but relaxed kind of smile.

Thalia caved, hypnotized by that grin. “Okay.”

Reyna slowly leaned forward to press her lips against Thalia’s blushing cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered, her eyes earnest.

Thalia rubbed her cheek, trailing her hand up to run it through her hair. “Yeah,” she said, wearing a ridiculous smile.

“If you want,” Reyna said kindly, “you can come back in and we can start off with that coffee now.”

Thalia couldn’t wipe that stupid smile off her face as she replied, “I’d like that.”

Aurum barked happily, running around in circles until she finally sat down on the couch again.

On her way back home, she was walking noticeably slower, the very same large smile nearly breaking her face in two. She couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe Jason had been right about something. Maybe her search _was_ over.


End file.
